1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary aspects of the present invention generally relate to an image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a facsimile machine, a printer, or a multi-functional system including a combination thereof.
2. Description of the Background Art
Related-art image forming apparatuses, such as copiers, facsimile machines, printers, or multifunction printers having at least one of copying, printing, scanning, and facsimile functions, typically form an image on a recording medium according to image data. Thus, for example, a charger uniformly charges a surface of an image bearing member; an optical writer projects a light beam onto the charged surface of the image bearing member to form an electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member according to the image data; a developing device supplies toner to the electrostatic latent image formed on the image bearing member to make the electrostatic latent image visible as a toner image; a transfer device transfers the toner image directly from the image bearing member onto a recording medium or indirectly from the image bearing member onto a recording medium via an intermediate transfer member; a cleaning device then cleans the surface of the image carrier after the toner image is transferred from the image carrier onto the recording medium; finally, a fixing device applies heat and pressure to the recording medium bearing the unfixed toner image to fix the unfixed toner image on the recording medium, thus forming the image on the recording medium.
Such a known transfer device generally includes a transfer member, supplied with a transfer bias, which contacts the image bearing member such as a photoconductive drum and an intermediate transfer belt, thereby defining a transfer nip therebetween, to transfer the toner image onto the recording medium. Further, the transfer device includes a sheet separator to supply a separation bias to the recording medium that exits the transfer nip, thereby separating the recording medium from the image bearing member. The transfer bias and the separation bias are supplied from a power source disposed in a main body of the image forming apparatus.
To supply power from the main body to the transfer device, the transfer device includes a power receiving electrode that contacts a power supply electrode provided to the power source. As the transfer device detachable from the main body is installed in the main body, the power supply electrode of the power source contacts the power receiving electrode of the transfer device, thereby supplying power to the transfer device.
In order to accommodate various thicknesses of recording media sheets, a pressing member, such as a spring, elastically presses the transfer member against the image bearing member so that the transfer member can be separated from the surface of the image bearing member by the thickness of the recording medium passing through the transfer nip.
Additionally, a cleaning blade is provided to contact the transfer member to remove undesirable toner adhered to the transfer member.
In this configuration, if only the transfer member is separable from the surface of the image bearing member, cleaning ability is degraded. For this reason, the transfer device including the cleaning blade is swingably movable relative to the main body of the image forming apparatus. Such a transfer device is pressed against the image bearing member by a pressing mechanism.
As the transfer device is swingably movable and a thick recording medium passes through the transfer nip, the transfer device needs to move by a large amount, thereby separating the power receiving electrode from the power supply electrode. As a result, the bias is not properly applied to the transfer member.
To address such difficulty, the transfer device and the power source of the main body are electrically connected using a harness, thereby permitting the transfer device a certain range of movement. Although advantageous, the harness needs to be removed from the transfer device upon maintenance or the like to prevent the harness from interfering with maintenance. On the other hand, upon installation of the transfer device in the main body, the harness needs to be connected to the transfer device, thereby complicating efforts to facilitate installation and removal of the transfer device.